The Library in the 1929 Ceer Yearbook
1 media/Ceer 1929 - The Library-min_thumb.jpg 2021-09-09T18:18:07+00:00 Rachel Karas 18684fea626f7d5d7f977e613f3d26fd8c2cc6b4 151 2 Half a page from a yearbook. On the right is a black and white photograph of a woman writing in a journal, with the caption "Mrs. Willis Whitaker." The text reads, "The Library Our Stauffer Library, primarily a place well equipped for study and research--with books, newspapers, magazines, and collections of interesting old relic (sic)--is something more than merely this. It also fulfills its mission as a thing of beauty, its charming architecture and paintings creating an atmosphere in which it is a pleasure to work. Mrs. Willis Whitaker, assisted by Miss Opal Spoor, Miss Katherine Tucker, and Miss Eva Bunch, is in charge of the Library. 1929 Ceer (LD891.C466 C4 1929), Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections and Archives, Chapman University. plain 2021-09-21T17:37:03+00:00 Rachel Karas 18684fea626f7d5d7f977e613f3d26fd8c2cc6b4This page is referenced by:
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The Stauffer Memorial Library: Something more than merely this
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The first named library at what is now Chapman University was called the Vernon Stauffer Memorial Library from 1925 to 1954 and simply, from 1954 to 1967, the Chapman College Library. As the college moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles and finally to Orange in 1954, the library was housed in various administration buildings, and started out very small. Its home on the Orange campus was in Memorial Hall.
Early issues of the Ceer, the Chapman yearbook, show that students had a sincere appreciation for the library and its staff. A page from the 1929 Ceer describes the Stauffer Library as "something more than merely" a place to study and a repository of books. The description of the library as a "thing of beauty" reveals that these early students, who attended what was then known as California Christian College, or "Cal Christian," recognized the value of the library.
Pages from the 1937 and 1938 issues of the Ceer show a sense of humor about the library, referring to librarians as "auctioneers," and as "Those great custodians of the Silence, those keepers of the Information." Although these captions poke gentle fun at librarian stereotypes, they do so in a light way that shows just how much the students valued what the library provided them.
Two Ceer pages from later years, two decades apart, in 1939 and 1959, show just how much Chapman students appreciated the library, as these issues of the Ceer were dedicated to librarians - Jeanne Sumner and Fanny Carlton, respectively.
According to the date on this photo, it shows Chapman students using the Chapman College Library on its very last day as the university library, February 15, 1967. The small library that had provided Chapman students a beautiful, supportive place to study, rich with resources, was ready to move into its own building.
